Nightmare
by sapphire-child
Summary: Harry has a nightmare. This is what he sees. Could be based, OotP type era.


Spoilers: Not quite sure but I'll put down all five books anyway  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The song is Any Dream Will Do by the fabulous Andrew Lloyd Webber.  
  
Author's Note: it's a little confusing because his nightmare keeps changing from place to place and people appear and disappear a lot. When I've skipped a line; that means that it's the next segment of the dream.  
  
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain, to see for certain what I thought I knew. Far, far away, someone was weeping but the world was sleeping any dream will do…May I return to the beginning? The light is dimming and the dream is too. The world and I, we are still waiting, still hesitating. Any dream will do…  
  
A light breeze ruffled his hair. The trees were dark with night. Harry could see them. They were right there; only a few feet away and yet he still couldn't see them properly. A girls voice rang out, she was clearly terrified.  
  
"Oh my god!" she dropped to her knees next to a crumpled figure on the ground.  
  
And now the boy's voice, just like last time. "No! It might be a trap…"  
  
They turned to face him and he saw exactly who they were. This was normally when he became blind and could only hear what was happening, but not tonight. Even before he could see them properly he knew. He was horrified; he had hoped that it wasn't them. Even though he knew it was and always had known, no matter how many times he tried to convince himself that it wasn't. He felt weak with the knowledge.  
  
"Harry?" the boy breathed.  
  
"Not quite Weasel."  
  
The words, though harsh, were familiar. He knew what was going to happen next. He'd already heard it dozens of times, piercing through the darkness of his subconscious.  
  
"Who are you then?" Hermione said sharply and stood, holding her wand ready.  
  
He felt his face grin. "You're so smart, I'm sure you can figure it out."  
  
"How about you tell us instead?" Ron snapped.  
  
"Worried are you?" He heard himself say. "Wondering...?"  
  
"Wands out, d'you reckon?" Cedric asked…  
  
"Kill the spare," a high-pitched voice spoke…  
  
The Chamber of Secrets loomed around him, dark and cold. A dead basilisk lay with its head resting on a grave. Harry peered down at the tombstone.  
  
'Harry Potter.' It read. 'The-Boy-Who-Lived-No-More.'  
  
The headstone changed into a mirror. No not a mirror, a flat sheet of water. He could see his reflection in it, reassuringly normal. His eyes turned scarlet as he watched and he swiped an ineffective hand at them that never quite reached them to cover up the evilness of those catlike pupils. Thin slits of midnight blackness against blood red…  
  
"You've killed her! How could you kill her? How could you hurt her?" the tears were pouring copiously down his face now…  
  
He launched himself at Hermione. A dagger's blade flashed silver and she screamed as he plunged it into her chest. The dagger ripped into her soft, yielding flesh easily and a sudden sick, euphoric joy gripped his heart. He pushed the dagger deeper; it was in her up to its hilt now. Blood gushed over Hermione's robes. She let out a strangled scream and lolled in his arms like a rag doll, her blood still pooling from the dagger that he had thrust into her heart.  
  
He let go of her and she crumpled to the floor. The dagger was sticking awkwardly out of her chest. She looked straight up at Harry into his eyes. She leant forward into a sitting position, reaching upwards with a single questing hand that found his.  
  
Her dark eyes pierced him.  
  
"Fight," she said simply. Her face was contorted with pain and she gripped his hand weakly. "There is always reason to fight. There is always reason to fight…"  
  
"Fight for what?" Harry asked. "Evil? I'm already doing that."  
  
Hermione's eyes filled with anguished tears. She was nearly gone and she knew it but she still leant forward again.  
  
"Love," she managed to gasp. "Fight for it… he can't win this…Harry…fight…"  
  
She fell back onto her back and gave a last shuddering breath out.  
  
"Come out Harry…come out and play then…it will be quick…it might even be painless…I would not know…I have never died…"  
  
Ron sprawled clumsily to the floor.  
  
Harry pointed a sword at Ron's throat. "Try not to struggle Weasel." He said. "It will make my job so much easier if you don't struggle."  
  
Ron stared up at him defiantly.  
  
"Fuck you Harry Potter." He spat.  
  
Harry smiled. "And the same to you too Ronald Weasley. I'll see you in hell."  
  
He pointed the sword at Ron's heart and pushed down hard. Ron screamed. Harry watched, amused, until Ron's clenching hand found a rock, which was thrown at and hit his face.  
  
Ron collapsed with a final sigh, a puppet whose strings had been cut as Harry touched the cut on his face, the dripping blood, gingerly with a shaking finger. It was scarlet on his finger, as red as his Quidditch robes but deathly cold.  
  
Harry frowned. Blood was supposed to be warm, not cold like it had been chilled in a refrigerator…  
  
"Bow to death Harry…"  
  
"I WON'T!"  
  
Harry was silent. Through the shadowy swathes of evil around and inside him he felt something change. His eyes glittered and it took substance, trailing down his cheeks in two liquid silver trails.  
  
His legs buckled beneath him and he sat on the floor looking at his shaking, blood stained hands.  
  
"Oh my god what have I done?" He choked.  
  
"You've just murdered two innocent friends of yours," Voldemort's voice fairly dripped with relish. "Quite ironic that you would end up killing off the last people you truly care for isn't it?"  
  
Harry's shoulders heaved.  
  
"I told you that you would pay this time. And if you wouldn't die then you could join me. What I didn't say was that I would make you suffer anyway. I never really wanted you to join me Harry, I just wanted to cause you pain because of the pain you've caused me."  
  
Harry stared up at Voldemort, his eyes blazing. "You absolute bastard." He hissed. "Why not just kill me?"  
  
Voldemort's eyes were glowing. "Because you have caused me pain. And so I decided on a slow, painful death instead of quick and painless. You suffer so much more that way."  
  
Harry began to tremble uncontrollably.  
  
"So what now?" he asked flatly. "Are you going to drop me on a massive spike and let me die slowly, impaled on it? Just so I can die in pain?"  
  
Voldemort thought for a moment. "Although that's very tempting…no. I'm going to leave you and your little friends in Hogsmeade." He grinned. "They can figure out the rest. You've got the Dark Mark on your arm, blood on your hands and two dead friends…"  
  
Harry could see the lights on in The Three Broomsticks even though it was very late at night. Laughter pealed from it.  
  
"Hasn't Hermione told you often enough?" Voldemort said as though Harry was stupid. He took a hold of Harry's chin and shook it from side to side. "You can't apparate into Hogwarts. It's impossible…"  
  
"I sentence you to life in Azkaban for the brutal murders of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger." Dumbledore said, his eyes cold. A hammer hit a wooden block.  
  
Molly Weasley was sobbing into her hands.  
  
"I'm innocent!" Harry yelled. "I'm innocent!"  
  
"That's what Sirius said too." Lupin had appeared beside Harry.  
  
"How could you kill them?" Ginny was crying. "How could you do that after all they did for you?"  
  
"I didn't kill them! It was Voldemort!"  
  
Voldemort laughed at him. But he wasn't Voldemort anymore, he was Draco Malfoy flanked on either side by Crabbe and Goyle.  
  
"I'm innocent! I swear!" Harry screamed as he was dragged away. "Give me veritaserum if you don't believe me…"  
  
"How could you do this? After we sacrificed ourselves for you," Lily was crying.  
  
"You aren't my son." James snarled. "My son cannot be this murdering coward before me. Never have I been so ashamed of you…"  
  
"It wasn't me! I'm innocent…I swear to you…"  
  
The coldness pierced through him. The Dementors were right outside his cell. And the darkness oh god the darkness was everywhere! Tearing him apart…  
  
"Even a Gryffindor can't be brave forever…but I have to try…I can't give up yet…"  
  
"I won't give up…" 


End file.
